


To Be a Patroller

by KarenHunt



Category: Sharing Knife - Lois McMaster Bujold
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-18
Updated: 2011-03-18
Packaged: 2017-10-17 01:56:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/171739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KarenHunt/pseuds/KarenHunt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tavia's view of the events of Horizon</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Be a Patroller

" _I will carry on the long war, with resolute fortitude, in living and in dying, in hope or out of it. I am a patroller._ " Tavia Pelican's voice shook slightly as she spoke the oath. Now it was official -- she was a real patroller, not just a kid who enjoyed practice trips out to the woods around their camp. She and the five others who were standing along with her were the newest additions to the New Moon Cutoff patrol.

When the ceremony was over, Tavia ran to her home tent as fast as she could. Banging the door as she rushed in, she smiled broadly and called to her mama, "I'm a patroller! It's official now! I'm going to be in Mollen's patrol, and my partner will be Neeta Bobcat, just back from Luthlia! She's been in two malice battles and killed one of them herself! She said she'll teach me all about how patrolling is done in the north!"

Her mama gave her a pained look. "Veil yourself, love! You'll set off your cousins if you don't tamp your ground down some."

Tavia blushed and tightened her ground-veil; it hadn't been open all that wide, not really.

Now, her mama smiled. "Good to hear that! I was sure you'd be accepted."

Her family had known in advance that she was going to be accepted into the patrol. Tavia learned this when, about an hour before supper, she was given a gift of a new bow and a patrol horse. The horse was a young gelding, mostly-brown with two white stockings. Tavia named him Lightfoot and took him for a ride around the camp before it was time to return home to eat. After taking care of her mount as good patrollers must, she led him to the camp paddock. He was content to go in, having spent his life there.

That night, Tavia decided to ask her mama for permission to bond to a knife. She wanted one of her great-uncle Arlon's bones, if she could have one -- they'd been close, and he'd been fond of telling her tales about the north from when he'd exchanged up in Oleana. His main role in the patrol had been scouting, and he had a lot of tales about how important a good scout could be. It was because of him that she'd worked so very hard at her trailblazing and tracking skills. And really, she'd enjoyed learning how to piece together events from not much more information than dropped items, bent plants, and marks in the dirt.

The best tale that her great-uncle Arlon used to tell her had a marvelously dramatic ballad that went with it. There'd been two patrol partners who'd gone out scouting and got separated from their main group. While traveling to rejoin their patrol, they came across a dangerous malice that had sent all its mud-men off to attack a nearby settlement. Neither had a primed knife, but both had bonded knives. Both claimed the duty to share for their own. The senior partner, who was married, ended up doing the sharing; his junior partner killed the malice and returned to the group with the tale and the broken knife.

She imagined herself as the senior partner someday, bravely offering herself up to save the rest of her patrol; she'd be famed in songs for hundreds of years. Of course, there hadn't been any malices down in these parts for hundreds of years. And really, she also wanted to marry and have children, too. Maybe after she had raised children, then that could happen.

When Tavia approached her mama about having one of his thighbones carved into a knife for her to bond to, however, things didn't go as she was hoping.

Her mama, looking troubled, said, "Oh, love, no. You're much too young. You don't understand what it means to volunteer to share at all."

"But mama, Neeta says that in Luthlia, they say that as soon as you're old enough to patrol, you're old enough to pledge!"

"No. This isn't Luthlia, and you aren't old enough. No more argument."

She tried more times off and on over the next week, but it didn't go any better than that conversation did.

***************************

Neeta's idea of what Tavia needed to learn appeared to be mostly tighter ground-veiling. Tavia didn't see much point in the lessons, since they didn't look likely to help her with fighting or with scouting or with how to walk patterns. All they did was make her feel blinded, like she was back to being a child before she developed her groundsense. At least after the veiling lessons, Neeta'd sometimes agree to tell stories about her time in Luthlia. The tales she most liked to tell were about the fighting Wolverines, a tent up there that had the toughest, fiercest fighters in all the hinterland. There'd been a fellow named Kaunear Wolverine who'd died thirty years ago; he killed twelve malices -- the last one when he was ninety-seven. The malice had killed him at the same time. The family was smaller now than it used to be; they'd lost many of their patrollers to the Wolf War some twenty years ago. Neeta's favorite songs were about that war or about Kaunear.

After about a week of training with Neeta, Tavia was ready to volunteer for any duty that didn't involve more lessons in veiling. Neeta arranged for them to collect the week's courier packet from Graymouth; they would spend a day in the big farmer town helping one of the camp's horsemen with selling culls from their paddock; then they'd buy a few supplies for the camp, and then they'd bring the packet back to camp and deliver the mail to whoever was to get it.

It was a two-day trip to Graymouth; it could have been done in one if they were in a hurry. Tavia wanted to hurry; she'd never seen Graymouth before and it sounded exciting. Neeta mentioned she'd been to the town three times already -- once when she did courier duty before her exchange north, and the other two times at the start and end of that trip. Tavia sighed. She'd never been anywhere interesting, but Neeta'd been all over, it seemed. Neeta then told Tavia that they'd arrive soon enough; no need to tire their horses. And that Graymouth wasn't that thrilling; it was mostly a lot of stupid farmers all packed in one place as tight as a flock of sheep in a pen. The plan was to spend a day selling culls, then the next day they'd pick up the courier packet and head home.

Graymouth proved to be every bit as tight-packed with farmers as Neeta had warned. Tavia closed her ground as soon as she got within range of the market. But it was much more interesting than Neeta had claimed -- there were more things being bought and sold than Tavia'd ever guessed even existed. They set up in a corner of the market to sell some of their culls, and soon had several purchasers looking over their stock. Neeta proved to be not very good at selling to farmers; instead of talking to them, she generally talked to the air around them. Tavia'd watched her papa selling some of his woodwork at the camp's farmers market -- he said it was best to treat them like regular folk. All the same, they did well enough with their selling.

Farmers seemed to vary in stupidity; one man bought their poorest horse for no better reason than because he liked black horses. Others had the sense to look them over carefully first and only pick out the better ones. The sharpest farmer turned out to be a young woman probably about nineteen or so -- Tavia's own age. She was in the company of a nice-looking Oleana patroller named Remo, and she wasn't actually looking for a horse; instead, she was shopping for good medicine makers for a Lakewalker man named Dag. He'd been a patroller, too, it seemed, but she said he had a calling for making now and could do some really amazing things. Tavia and Neeta gossiped a bit with Remo about their medicine maker, old Arkady, in their camp; they closed by suggesting that his friend could try asking. A while later, Remo and another farmer who turned out to be the girl's brother came by to purchase a horse for her birthday. Remo spent some time chatting a bit with them; it was plain to see he was pretty shy and more than slightly embarrassed to be seen among farmers.

The following day, they made the purchases they'd promised to make and collected their courier packet. They started back for camp after lunch, taking the string of leftover horses with them.

The next day started with pouring rain. They weren't in a hurry, so they waited. It didn't let up the whole day. The following day was raining, too, but at least it slowed down by noon. Neeta made them travel on in spite of the rain this time. They arrived at New Moon Cutoff a bit before evening; they returned the horses to the paddock, then spent the next hour delivering the goods and the mail. Old Arkady had three letters, all from different camps. Neeta commented that that was rather a lot of mail for just one person.

When Tavia returned to her tent, she told her kin about the market in Graymouth and about how there were so many folks from all over there -- they'd met a few from Raintree and almost half a dozen from Oleana. Mostly these were farmers planning to travel north along the Trace, but there was a quiet patroller fellow named Remo who was in his twenties. And he might pay a visit to the camp soon. When she mentioned how odd it was that Arkady'd gotten three letters, her aunt Jolia spoke up. She had all the best gossip in the camp now that she was serving on the council this season; she claimed it was one of the few benefits of getting stuck with that duty.

"It's not that surprising, really. He's been searching for a groundsetter's apprentice by sending letters to all the camps in the south and a lot of others as well. He says it's the only hope for saving Tawa Killdeer -- you know, the woman with the bad childbirth troubles; she'll be due in two months or so. He sent out the letters some three months ago, and he's been getting responses gradually all this time. No success so far; he's been getting discouraged. This on top of losing his apprentice Sutaw two months ago; folks are getting worried for him. He needs something to break him out of his funk."

The following day Tavia was off-duty, but the day after that Neeta signed them up for camp guard duty.

The day started quietly enough, with just a few folk heading in and out for errands to places nearby. A bit more than an hour before lunch, however, a group of four walked up. The Oleana patroller fellow, Remo, was one of them. So was that farmer girl he'd been with the first time she'd seen him -- she was riding the horse they'd sold. The other two likely included that Dag fellow who was looking to meet with old Arkady. Of those two, one was a blond patroller who looked to be about twenty, the other was a very tall, very thin, ground-closed man who was probably in his fifties.

The young man turned out to be named Barr; he was a friendly patroller partner to Remo. Dag was the older man. Somehow she'd been expecting someone more Barr's age. She'd also not expected to learn that this Dag fellow claimed to be married to the farmer girl. Neeta rolled her eyes when she learned that item. As for letting him in, that would have been fine if he'd just agree to allow the farmer girl to stay at the farmers market shelter while he went in. But, no, Dag didn't like the idea one bit -- he wanted to have her come into camp with him. Farmers were not to enter camp; that had been made clear enough when they signed up for the duty, but he wouldn't agree to any compromises or anything. Finally, after a bit of argument and some hopeful, pleading looks from Barr, Tavia agreed to walk down to old Arkady's place to ask him to come to the gate to decide what should be done.

When she arrived with him back at the gate, he looked over the group, appearing nonplussed. Tavia realized she hadn't told him which person was Dag. She decided that in the future, she would make sure not to confuse folk that way again.

The conversation didn't go well; first they argued and then old Arkady told Dag, "Get out of this camp." And then, when he turned away to go back to his tent, Dag opened his ground and attacked him -- or he did something, anyway. Tavia's ground was more than half closed at this point, but she still saw something come at Arkady. His hand started bleeding and he wheeled back to face Dag. Tavia and Neeta both drew their knives; they also stepped forward and closed the space between them to block any further attacks. Arkady waved them back. After a moment, it occurred to Tavia to wonder what she would have been able to do against a ground projection attack, anyway.

When Dag and Arkady resumed their argument, with very different tones of voice, it didn't take long at all for Arkady to decide to take the group to his tent and talk with them in private.

After everyone else had left, Neeta's only comment about it all was that gate guard duty was hardly ever as exciting as that had been.

****************************************

Another week of training passed pleasantly enough. Remo and Barr both came over regularly to practice with her and Neeta. Sure enough, Neeta was soon telling them to do ground-veiling drills, too. Remo proved to be already skillful -- just about as good as Neeta, really; Barr was only slightly better than Tavia. They did say that Dag had been making them do the drills, too. Remo even tossed in a comment that Barr had been worse than Tavia when they started with him, but that he improved when Dag claimed that in Luthlia he'd be left out for malice bait. Neeta was startled to learn Dag'd been to Luthlia; she made it plain that she believed that anyone who'd get themselves hitched to a farmer couldn't possibly be a very good patroller.

When the Oleana boys learned that she and Neeta were going to go out on patrol at the end of the week, the four of them went to pay a visit to their patrol leader, to see if Remo and Barr could take part as exchange patrollers. This was judged acceptable, so arrangements were made.

The day before the start of the patrol, Tavia paid a visit to Neeta in her tent. Neeta was upset because the primed knife she was planning to take with her on patrol had broken and she didn't know why. Tavia offered to go with her to the camp's senior knife maker, Vayve Blackturtle, to find out if there was anything that could be done.

When she and Neeta arrived at Vayve's bone shack, they found that Oleana fellow Dag already there. He was just putting a primed knife into its sheath and then under his shirt; likely it was the one that Remo and Barr were hoping to bring on the patrol. In a strange way, he reminded her of her great-uncle. Reading Dag's facial expressions was a lot like reading Arlon's -- she had to imagine what the expression would have become if he had completed it. He told them a strange tale from the north about last summer's Raintree malice; it seemed the farmers where it had first emerged hadn't even had the sense to flee when it started attacking their village. Dag was oddly intent about the need to teach farmers about malices and the patrol. Tavia didn't see the point; it wasn't like they would understand anyway.

The very next day, they set out from camp. It was a chilly bright day; after the noon meal was over, they spread out into a five-by-five pattern and started walking. The ground was mucky enough that they left their horses in their day-camp, though the mud never got deeper than their ankles. Some of the patrollers were inclined to complain, but Neeta said there was much worse up in Luthlia -- she'd sometimes had to walk into muck up to her waist. After a bit, they made it onto firmer ground. Soon, some of the patrollers around her began singing. Tavia joined in, but Neeta, Remo, and Barr all stayed silent. That evening Neeta told her that she shouldn't be singing; that patrolling is supposed to be done as silently as possible.

Tavia frowned. "But everyone else is doing it. What's wrong with enjoying yourself surrounded by life?"

Neeta frowned more strongly, "We're not out here to enjoy ourselves. We're out here to search for malices."

Barr chimed in with the statement that his camp's captain would never have allowed any of her patrollers to make any kind of sound while walking. And how important being quiet was for flushing mud-men. Tavia agreed to be more silent in future, though she privately thought that the chances of finding a malice or its mud-men weren't going to be much changed with or without her being quiet. The south was just too peaceful of a place to be, but she didn't suppose she'd ever be able to exchange north like Neeta had.

Over the next weeks Tavia got more of a taste of real patrolling, including walking into deep muck. After all, there was no shortage of swamps down here in the south. She did have the sense not to complain, unlike one of the other new folk in the patrol. Neeta did a better job of hushing the fellow down than their patrol leader did.

Evenings gradually got more and more confusing. Tavia wished Remo would look at her the way he looked at Neeta, but it never seemed to happen. Instead it was Barr who kept looking at her. But Barr reminded her way too much of her next-older brother, who was way too assured of his good looks and desirability to girls. She didn't want a full-of-himself boyfriend on top of a full-of-himself brother.

One evening, Neeta tried telling Remo and Barr they ought to break away from their so-questionable companion Dag and return to living properly as Lakewalkers should. They could join New Moon Cutoff just fine, she was sure.

Remo said, "You don't understand about Dag. He's a much better patroller than you think he is."

Neeta frowned. "Nobody who gets thrown out of their camp for farmer-loving can possibly be that good."

Remo shook his head, angrily. "He was in Luthlia a lot longer than you ever were. Did you know he was a company captain when he was there?"

Neeta gave him a decidedly dubious look. "You shouldn't believe everything folks tell you. There's no way they'd let someone like that be a company captain -- they have the best patrollers in all the hinterlands; they don't need to take on farmer-lovers."

"You don't know what you're talking about!" Remo nearly shouted in his frustration. "He was the captain up at Wolf Ridge -- I bet you didn't know that, did you? His name was Dag Wolverine Leech Luthlia."

Neeta's eyes grew wide, then wider. Her jaw slowly dropped. Then she recited a rhyming couplet about eyes of gold and hair of black that flowed like a river down someone's back. "Oh. Oh! Oh!! It's true!" A blinding smile spread clear across her face.

Soon enough Tavia learned that the couplet came from a not-very-good lament about his lost love, a woman named Kauneo Wolverine, who apparently had had silver eyes and winter-red hair. The poet who put that ballad together had trouble finding rhymes for her name and eye color, it seemed.

By the end of the patrol, everyone knew Dag's history. They'd also heard each and every one of the ballads about him that Neeta'd learned in Luthlia enough times that not many folks wanted to hear more of them. They all wanted to meet Dag, though. Tavia really couldn't see what Neeta wanted from Dag; there just wasn't any way he'd take an interest in her, but Neeta was all about bringing him back into the fold and all about how since he liked younger women and all, he might maybe like her. There just wasn't any talking sense into her.

The last day of their return journey to camp was on yet another rainy day. Tavia was glad to return to her home tent to dry off and get warmed up. Her mama asked how the patrol had gone.

Tavia described the lands they'd visited and how they'd had to walk into deep mud more than once. She described their hunting expeditions, and how they did trading with local farmers. Then she told her mama about what she'd learned about Dag. By the end of her tale, everyone in her tent was also wanting to meet Dag and get to know him better. Tavia wondered what he was going to think of so many folks all trying to meet him -- from what she'd seen of him, she didn't think he was going to like being so noticed.

A week later, everyone was still excited. Captain Bullrush invited Dag and his companions to a pig roast. Remo was going to be invited, too, Aunt Jolia told her, and yes, of course Tavia could come along as well. When Neeta learned that Tavia was invited, she got permission from Aunt Jolia to be brought along as well.

After the food was eaten, Tavia chatted cheerfully with Remo and Barr. She was a bit puzzled to see Dag and his farmer girl leave early, though -- the main point of the party was to get to know him better, and here he was walking off. Tavia decided she didn't need to worry about it and went back to trying to get Remo to notice her rather than Neeta.

Things returned to something like normal after the pig roast. Folks still wanted to meet Dag, but they weren't as insistent as they'd been. It wasn't until about five days later that the next big event happened.

Word that his farmer girl had run off with a farmer boy she'd met at the market spread through the camp even more rapidly than the word of Dag's past in Luthlia had. Plenty of folk thought that was just what he deserved for having hooked up with her in the first place -- maybe he'd settle down with someone more suitable now that he'd learned what farmers were really like. But Remo and Barr both claimed it was impossible; Fawn wouldn't ever run off and even if she had, Dag wasn't the sort to go chasing after with plans to kill the farmer boy. When Remo and Barr next met up with Tavia and Neeta, they told how Arkady'd found a note saying that Dag'd gone off to treat a sick farmer child. Tavia agreed with Remo and Barr about how that seemed much more likely than the first tale. Neeta, however, seemed to think -- or hope -- that it might have been a ruse to conceal the real events. She said in private to Tavia that maybe now that Dag'd seen the error of his ways, he might be willing to look at someone else. Someone who'd be much better for him than some farmer girl.

When Tavia returned home and talked about it all with her family, her Aunt Jolia said she was more inclined to believe the sick farmer child story, but she then told Tavia a horrifying tale from Arkady's past about how he'd gotten into serious trouble trying just such medicine-making for farmers. She seemed to believe that Dag was sure to be sent off if that turned out to be the true story. She also reported gossip of Antan and Arkady getting into some truly ferocious arguments over Dag's disappearance -- it seemed Arkady'd tried to conceal the fact that he knew Dag had left, whatever the reason was for Dag leaving.

Not quite a week later during the afternoon, Tavia learned from Neeta that Antan had just that morning gone off to the farm where Dag was staying. Yes, he'd been treating a farmer child, and yes, Antan had thrown Dag out of camp when Dag wouldn't promise never to do such a thing again. That day Arkady came twice to their tent-grouping to find Aunt Jolia and argue with her to get her to make Antan agree to allow Dag to return. Remo and Barr spent the time trying to get the patrollers to talk to Antan as well. The next day was more of the same.

It was midmorning the next day when everyone in the camp learned that Arkady was gone. By afternoon, Antan was making it known that he wasn't in favor of chasing after Arkady. He couldn't stay out in farmer country forever; he'd have to come back soon enough. All they had to do was wait.

They waited five days. Every one of those days, several times per day, Remo went over to patroller headquarters to try to convince Antan that Dag wasn't bluffing and he really was going to go north and likely take Arkady with him. Antan didn't believe Arkady would ever agree to head north -- he was bluffing about leaving and there was no way Antan would let him get away with trying to force him to accept Dag back and that was that.

Finally, Antan agreed that Remo could check up on Arkady to see if he was ready to come back yet. But he'd better not even hint that Dag would be allowed to return, because that wasn't going to happen for anything. Remo returned several hours later with the news that Dag and Arkady were both long gone -- they'd headed off a good four days ago.

Antan ignored the news, but Tavia told Remo that he'd do well to tell Challa. When she learned the news, she got things happening. A camp council meeting was scheduled for the very next morning.

It took all that day and a good part of the next for the camp council to come up with the votes to overrule Captain Antan. They then turned to the discussion of working out just what it would take to bring Dag and Arkady back. Remo was specifically requested to be present. Neeta attached herself to the proceedings as well, even though no one was quite sure why she ought to be there. Tavia came because both Remo and Neeta were coming.

Farri, the council head this season, started by asking Challa for her opinion of what it would take to bring Arkady back.

Once Challa had the stick in hand, she looked down and sighed. Then she spoke, saying, "The first thing to realize is that Arkady doesn't have any more kin here than Dag does. We want him back, but he just doesn't have the ties to us that would make sure he'll return. I think he's made it plain enough that what he wants is for Dag to be allowed back. If Dag is allowed to return and if he agrees to do so, then Arkady will, too. If Dag doesn't, then I think Arkady probably won't either. Still, I can't imagine him enjoying spending his days on horseback traveling north along a road to nowhere that he's ever been to before and getting covered with road dust. I do hope he's all right. Maybe whoever goes after him could remind him of the comforts he's left behind."

Farri then said, "Well, if bringing Arkady back will only work if we can bring Dag back, then we need to think about what it'll take to bring Dag back. Remo, you know him best of any of us here. What will bring him back?"

Remo collected the stick from Challa. "He's not from here. His quest isn't here. He wants to be in the north. There's not much I can think of. He was willin' to go north even without Arkady, though I know he wasn't happy about it." He shook his head.

After some discussion, the council decided that the only chance of convincing Dag to return was to offer tent rights to both him and Fawn. At this point, Captain Antan stormed out, shouting that he wouldn't lead any camp that was willing to have a farmer girl as a member. They continued without him.

Remo pointed out that Dag wasn't likely to agree even then, unless he'd be allowed to set up a medicine booth at the farmers market. After all, that was the sticking point at the start of all this. It was a matter of less than an hour to get council approval for that as well -- folks were getting desperate to get Arkady back, and it sure appeared that he wouldn't come if they couldn't convince Dag to do so as well. At that point, Challa said she thought she might start the medicine booth on her own before they returned, since she knew how to do unbeguiling already.

Neeta spoke up at this point, saying that she was sure she'd be able to convince Dag, at least, to return. And that she'd been in the north, so she was better for the job than many other folks would be. Since the council wanted to get moving quickly, they agreed to allow her to take it on.

Finally, shortly after lunch eight days after Arkady left camp, Neeta, Tavia, and Remo started off north. They might have been able to start a bit earlier, except that Remo spent part of the morning picking out a horse to buy with some of the money he'd gotten for fighting bandits along the Grace. None of them had ever ridden the Trace more than a few miles north, but Neeta claimed it ought to be easy to figure out -- the road was long and mostly straight, and all they had to do was stay on it until they caught up with Dag and Arkady.

****************************************

Neeta had guessed they would catch up with Dag and Arkady before they reached the Barrens. This turned out to be overly optimistic. When the three of them arrived at the edge of the Barrens, they had to spend a few days laying in the supplies needed to manage the trip across; folks from around the area told them there was little or no grazing to be had -- they would need to buy and carry enough grain to last two hundred miles. Once they had enough, they set out again. The Barrens proved every bit as empty and uninteresting as their name promised; they spent the entire time they were there hoping to be done with them.

The farmer town of Mutton Hash, a good four hundred miles north of home, appeared before them a week and a half later. They were tired and frustrated; so far, they'd gone halfway to the Grace Valley, and they still hadn't seen any sign of Dag or Arkady. They were also too late to take the ferry that day, so they spent the night in a meadow at the edge of town. At least they arrived early the following morning and managed to be part of the first group to cross the Hardboil River on it. As Neeta and Remo argued -- again -- about whether they might have passed Dag and Arkady without seeing them, Tavia went up to the ferryman.

"Have you seen a very tall and thin Lakewalker man with short-cut black hair, gold eyes, and missing his left hand? He travels with a little farmer girl about nineteen years old."

"'Course I have. He was here just four days ago. You're not even the first person to ask about him -- there was a fiddler woman who was asking, too. When he and the girl arrived, the fiddler woman and two of my ferry helpers walked right off their jobs and joined him going north."

She returned to Neeta and Remo and told them the news. They rode harder now, hoping to catch up soon. By afternoon of their third day out, they were climbing a long mountain pass. When they stopped for a rest, Neeta did a bit of scouting around. After a bit, she returned and told them all that she thought Dag and Arkady were near -- a party not very far ahead of them looked to have a mix of horses and mules; with the mules pulling a wagon, by the signs. The dung was fresh enough that they couldn't be more than a few hours ahead. So they continued on into the early night, even though the road was narrow and becoming treacherous as they climbed higher. When they reached the top of the pass, they met up with Dag -- he was making a perimeter patrol around his traveling group. There were a lot more of both farmers and Lakewalkers in his party than Tavia'd been led to expect. Arkady was asleep already and they were exhausted themselves, so they decided to camp for the night and give him and Dag the news in the morning.

Morning on the top of a mountain pass was a gray foggy affair. Once Neeta, Tavia, and Remo were dressed and ready for breakfast, they joined Dag and Arkady by the patrollers' fire to tell them the news. Neeta had been sure that the two of them would be delighted to learn of their successes with the council. Their lack of delight was a real comedown. Dag made it known from the start that he had no wish to return south. Arkady didn't make his preferences clear at all, at least at first. There was a patrol leader woman in his group named Sumac Redwing -- she was Dag's niece, seemingly. She said they shouldn't decide right now anyway -- first they should get down off this mountain and get their traveling party all together again.

So it was that they arrived in a very pleasant mountain valley early that afternoon. Since two of the farmers were on the other side of the mountain guarding some of their goods, the rest of the farmer boys prompty turned around and headed back to fetch them. The rest of the folks in the camp turned to the tasks of making camp.

Before Neeta and her companions could start again on convincing Dag and Arkady to turn around, Arkady disappeared. So did that patrol leader woman, Sumac. And Dag. And Fawn.

This left not many folks in the camp -- apart from Barr and a young patroller from New Elm named Rase Popler who'd been accompanying Sumac to exchange in the north, it was just themselves, the not-too-friendly farmer family (who kept to themselves anyway), and two farmer women who were busy doing camp setup chores on their own.

When Neeta commented on the lack of folk around, Barr snickered. "For all the older folk say we youngsters are a randy bunch, it sure looks like they're doin' better than we are. What do you say, Tavia? Want to go off in the woods to gather some firewood?"

She glared at him. "Not with you." By this point, she'd given up on Remo ever looking at her, but she was dead sure that she wasn't going to take an interest in Barr any time soon.

The rest of the afternoon passed slowly. Dag and Fawn reappeared in the early evening; Arkady and Sumac didn't show up till nearly bedtime.

The following morning, Arkady made it known that he intended to keep traveling north. Neeta, Tavia, and Remo conferred: Neeta did not want to head back without Arkady and Dag under any circumstances. Remo had spent the day arguing with Barr, and was now torn between continuing north or returning south. Tavia kept her mouth shut; she'd never seen the north and was excited by the chance to maybe find out what it was like. As a result, when Neeta declared that they should keep going north for the time being, maybe even as far as the Grace Valley, neither Remo nor Tavia protested the extra miles. Neeta seemed awfully confident that she'd be able to change Dag's or Arkady's minds about returning south, though Tavia sure couldn't figure out how that was going to happen.

As they traveled through the valley, Barr spent his time chasing after Remo to persuade him to keep going north. Remo spent his time chasing after Neeta. Neeta spent her time mooning after Dag. Arkady and Sumac Redwing glued themselves to each other. Tavia found herself left to her own devices. So did Rase Poplar. With both of them free to do as they wished and no one trying to get them to spend time with someone else, they took to riding together. As they rode, Tavia and Rase talked about their families; both were nineteen and the youngest of their families, and both had an older sister who was to inherit the family tent and an older brother who was a maker. Tavia actually had two older brothers rather than one, but otherwise she and Rase had a lot in common.

He spoke almost reverently of Sumac, and seemed to think that if she believed Dag about worse malices to come in the north, then he ought to do so as well. They also compared impressions of Dag; Rase spoke of the day he'd spent in Mutton Hash, when Dag had spoken about last summer's Raintree Malice and claimed that farmers and Lakewalkers needed to learn how to work together. It turned out his camp had taken a few refugees from Bonemarsh; he told her some chilling tales of the day the malice's mud-men and mind-slaved farmers had overrun that camp. Tavia told him in return of the day she'd seen Dag in their senior knife maker's bone shack; how he'd seemed so odd and intent on warning farmers about the danger.

A few days later, after they finished supper and the evening chores, Dag stated that he was going to make a ground shield for Fawn's brother Whit like the one he'd made for Fawn. Tavia watched open-mouthed as he helped Whit with the making of a marriage cord; Dag had explained that they would need one because it was to supply ground-food for the main making. Just like he said would happen, Whit's ground entered the cord just fine once his blood provided a path for his ground to travel. The main shield-making involved the shaping of something Dag called an involution; this was a kind of groundwork that wouldn't get absorbed like ordinary reinforcements did. It was set within a walnut shell that was to be embedded within the marriage cord because the working was supposed to function like a shell for the farmer's ground. When Dag broke off his involution into the walnut, several folks winced. Tavia could tell that it must have been a largish working, but her own ground sensitivity was such that she'd never be a maker; she couldn't even give ground reinforcements. Arkady then made one for Whit's wife Berry; after that they let it be known they were both too tired to make any more that night.

By the end of the following day of travel, they reached the Trace's second mountain pass. Neeta had been getting antsier and antsier as they traveled farther and farther north; that day during the mid-afternoon, she told Tavia that she was going to make another try to convince Dag to turn around -- surely if Dag agreed to return, Arkady would do likewise. Tavia doubted that anything could change Dag's mind, but she didn't mind; she enjoyed talking with Rase enough that she figured she'd be willing to go all the way to the Grace Valley or maybe even farther. Neeta returned that evening with ground and face closed. No luck. When she tried to get Tavia to try to convince Dag to return, complete with suggesting that she make an offer of sex, Tavia almost walked away. She stewed a bit and then told Neeta that Dag had shown himself devoted to Fawn that first day at camp; she didn't see any reason why he'd be interested in her, especially considering that he'd already turned Neeta down.

This second mountain climb was slow. She supposed Dag's group hadn't been going any faster the last time, but she hadn't been with them at the time. The reason it was so very slow was because they couldn't go faster than the mules going up and then they had to wait for the other wagon to catch up with them. And of course, they also had to allow the horses and mules to rest until the next day before they could continue their journey. On the following day, they entered a much less pleasant valley. There were no trees anywhere, except some large dead ones here and there. Remo said there'd been a fire three years back that pretty much burned the area out. Pearl Riffle, his home camp, had had to send many of its patrols southwards for two years to help the Laurel Gap folk in making up the lost time in covering their patrol territory. This last year was the first one that they'd resumed doing more of their patrols north of the Grace.

During the early afternoon, Dag suddenly called out that there was a mud-man ahead. Barr and Remo, who were busy arguing yet again about staying in the north versus the south, abruptly stopped their argument and rode to Sage Smith's wagon to grab some boar spears. Neeta, Tavia, and Rase followed after a moment of looking questioningly at each other. _A mud-man, here?_ When they all arrived at the spot where Dag had dismounted, they saw a dead man-like thing lying on the road; Dag had cut its throat. Whatever it used to be, its ground was horrifying. _So that's what mud-men are like...._ Dag's farmer-partner Whit Bluefield dismounted and approached; Tavia was satisfied to keep her distance by staying up on her horse. Dag ordered Neeta and Rase to go back and find Arkady and Sumac; he needed them soonest.

It wasn't long at all before the herd of farmers came up, led by Fawn. She brought one of the other women forward to the kill and explained to them all about how it must have been made from a bear and showed them how it still looked a lot like one in its hair, ears, and jaw. _She really did kill a malice!_ Shocked, Tavia realized that Fawn really actually had more experience with these monsters than she did herself -- and more than a lot of patrollers in the south, too. Dag took over the explanations at this point, giving them to farmers and Lakewalkers together.

Arkady and Sumac arrived just a few minutes later. Arkady approached the mud-man looking like he was regretting his recent lunch. Soon after, one of the farmer boys -- Ash -- actually asked if patrollers ate mud-men! Tavia couldn't imagine a more revolting notion; Arkady managed to turn somewhat greener. She was dead certain that she didn't want that nasty thing anywhere near anything that went anywhere near her mouth.

Dag took command, sending Sumac and Barr north to check the road ahead, and Remo and Neeta to the sides to check the overlooking high ground. Tavia and Rase, the two youngest patrollers, waited and watched uncertainly. After a time, Remo and Neeta returned with the news that there were no signs of trouble to the sides. Dag turned to Rase and told him that if they did go after the malice, Rase'd get to be the centerpiece of the attack. Tavia was feeling a bit useless at this point -- Dag had found uses for everyone but her, but she wasn't about to complain. Fawn and Berry passed some food around while everyone waited for news from Sumac and Barr.

News arrived in the form of Sumac's horse galloping wildly back with no rider. Tavia and the others stopped it with a summoning. After a quick look over the horse, Dag summoned all the patrollers to him -- they hurried over and lined up along the road, ready to go to the rescue. But then Barr's horse showed up, with Barr, only moments later; Sumac was sitting behind him. When he called out that they'd found the malice just up the road, a thrill ran down Tavia's spine -- all this time practicing and now she would finally be fighting in a real battle. _Finally?_ She could just hear her grandfather's guffaw someday soon once she told him about this -- he'd never seen any malice in the south in all his fifty years of walking so far, and she'd only just given her patroller's oath a few weeks before midwinter. Even so, after this, she'd be able to name herself a real patroller, just like Neeta.

Fawn's brother Whit Bluefield asked to join the fight, so he could try out his ground-shield. When Dag eventually agreed, Neeta rolled her eyes -- she clearly didn't think Whit would be useful to have along. Dag then told Sumac and Arkady they were to ride south away from the malice with the rest of the farmers.

Their quarter-patrol cantered up the road and pulled aside at a campsite. Dag partnered Tavia with Barr and set them to finding a good place to get a cross-fire shooting angle; the two of them headed off and found a decent clump of bushes after not too long. As soon as Dag fired his first shot, they joined in. Tavia managed to kill or injure a good number of mud-men before they all ran off to guard their malice. Even through her closed ground, Tavia could feel the horrid thing sucking ground into itself from all around. As they all ran up to where it stood, they fought off injured mud-men and ducked rocks being thrown at them -- this was a lot harder and scarier than standing off in the bushes and shooting. Rase, with Neeta and Remo alongside him, tried to sneak around behind it. Unfortunately, it kept turning towards them. Then a jagged rock bounced off Barr's head, and he went down. There was sure a lot of blood coming out. Worried, Tavia tried to help stop the bleeding on Barr's head by pressing on it, but Barr kept making it harder by moving around. Moments later, Whit shot the malice with his crossbow and it swung around to throw the bolt back at him. Just then, Rase ran up to it and stabbed it. His knife went _snap!_ And that was it. There was a horrible screeching while the malice fell apart, and the remaining mud-men all ran off. Rase promptly began throwing up. Tavia knew better than to leave her partner, but she rather wished she could have been the one to help Rase instead of Remo.

Once the remaining mud-men were killed, Remo led Rase back to his horse and helped put him onto it and Tavia helped Barr make it to his own. Dag sent Neeta chasing back to get the farmers turned around so they could meet by the wagons. They all walked their horses as gently as possible back to the wagons, so as not to give trouble for Rase or Barr.

After supper that night, they celebrated the malice kill; it wasn't the usual sort of bowdown what with all the farmers taking part, but Rase was pleased with Berry's fiddle playing and that was good enough for Tavia. Neeta threw disapproving looks off and on, though.

The next day, they continued their journey. When they reached the site of their malice kill, they spent some time describing the battle to the farmers. Finch, Ash, Sage, and Indigo were thoroughly impressed; they asked a great many questions about it. A bit before lunch time Dag spotted the trail the malice had taken. He invited the patrollers and the farmer boys to come see. Rase was too sick to come, and Sumac and Neeta'd already seen malice lairs, so they stayed behind to watch over him, but the rest were eager to see one. Then Arkady indicated that he wished to come as well. Dag grimaced, but allowed him to do so -- saying only, "You'll be sorry you did."

The lair wasn't much more than a few miles off the Trail. The world's ground around them began to thin out like in the Barrens, and Dag indicated everyone should close their grounds. He then explained to patrollers and farmers both about how it's bad to be on blight for too long and they were only going to spend a short time there. He then waved the others to go forward, saying he needed to speak with Arkady in private.

As she approached the lair, she could feel the blight pulling at her ground -- it wasn't as bad as fighting the malice, but it got worse the closer they got to the bit of cave at the bottom of a ledge in the center of the blight. It was a hideous place; spring should have been sending up flowers and ivy; the birds should have been calling, and squirrels should have been exploring. Instead there was deadness and silence. And lots of man-sized holes clustered around the area.

Arkady and Dag approached. As Dag walked up into the dead area, Arkady stopped and turned very green. Abruptly, he turned and fled. When Dag asked whether anyone had seen a malice lair before, only Whit Bluefield could say he had. Dag had Whit describe how he thought this one was like the other and how it was different. Mostly, Whit said the other one was bigger and that he'd not seen holes at the other; maybe they were away from the part of it that he'd been at. Dag spent a few minutes explaining about how the malice had come up just about here and how it had likely gone off sessile less than a month ago. He pointed out a dead vixen, totally unrotted, at the entrance to the cave, and explained how the malice had most likely ground-ripped it to get started towards its first molt; this was probably close to two weeks ago, since the malice was so close to splitting when they'd come across it. He explained how the holes were the malice's first mud-man nursery; they counted forty of them in all. They'd come across thirty-two mud-men in their fight, so there were eight others unaccounted for. He didn't know what happened to them, though perhaps they'd been badly made and had died some time before. They spent about a half hour at the blight before they returned to meet up with the rest of their group.

The ones who'd stayed behind told a horrifying tale of a burned out village they'd come across a ways back south on the road. At this point, Tavia decided that if she never saw this valley again, that would be just fine with her. This was a land of death. They continued north soon after. Finally, as evening approached, Tavia noticed with relief that there were trees ahead -- they were nearly done with the burned over land and would be able to camp in a much nicer area than they had last night.

That was when the whole world blew apart. Dag and the others in the lead saw some bat-monsters ahead and rode up to investigate. Several flew off. He was all for fleeing and with not a single thought for fighting, but it wasn't clear where to flee to. No sooner had everyone gathered together than an entire flock of the monsters flew down from over the eastern ridge and attacked them.

The battle'd hardly begun when one of the bat-things landed on Lightfoot and dragged a clawed foot across his belly. He went down and the monster grabbed Tavia. She swung wildly as the flying monster lifted her from her horse. Lightfoot lay on the ground writhing and making terrible noises -- she wanted to do the same, but this seemed a bad time for it. Ahead, she saw the little farmer tad, Owlet, also being carried off. He was screaming louder than her horse; she really didn't know how such a small child could make so much noise.

She tried to think of something in her training that would help her now. There wasn't much. She supposed it started with her oath: _"I will carry on the long war, with resolute fortitude, in living and in dying, in hope or out of it. I am a patroller."_ That didn't seem directly helpful just now. But neither her earliest teachers nor her old patrol leader nor even Neeta had included any lessons in what to do when being carried off by giant bats. Nor Remo or Barr; not even Dag's strangest fireside tales matched this. This was more like something in a Bo story, but the only one of his tales that seemed maybe helpful had the hero tricking a bear into letting him escape. Problem was, she didn't think she could trick this bat into doing anything. She scratched the monster's legs a few times with her fingernails, but they just weren't anything like long enough to do real harm. When she looked down a moment later, she swallowed hard: Trying to make it drop her wasn't a good idea at all -- she'd be killed for sure from this height. She switched to grabbing its legs as tightly as she could.

 _I will carry on the long war._ Just right now, she thought she'd be delighted to carry on the long war if only it would stop carrying her.

As she swung, she looked around as best she could. The giant bat carrying the little boy was ahead and above, almost ready to clear the nearby mountain ridge; her own mud-bat was having trouble reaching the top. She decided to give it more trouble by kicking and swinging herself on purpose. As she did so, she got a better view around. Behind and below her was a bizarre sight. Two bats were working together to carry someone else from their group -- one had him by the leg and the other had him by the opposite arm. She couldn't tell who it was, though. Her bat was tiring more and more as it tried to climb, so she kicked harder; soon it was hardly progressing at all.

Abruptly, it changed direction and flew across to a group of largish bushes growing near the top of the ridge. Flapping around just over the tops of the bushes, the bat managed to drag Tavia through them. Branches hit her face and arms; her hair snagged on one and a hank of it got half-torn out. When her grip on the monster's legs slipped, she fell into them. No longer encumbered by her, the bat rapidly flew off. With some difficulty and yet more scratches, Tavia managed to drag herself out of the scrub and to a place where she could stand. Shaking from head to toe, she shook her fist at the retreating monster. Moments later, her breath caught and she barely stopped herself from crying hysterically. _With resolute fortitude._ Right, then. She muttered under her breath, "Buck up already! You wouldn't see Dag falling to pieces just because he got carried off by bats!"

In a short time -- just about when she got her shaking under control -- she heard the farmer tad crying again. It sounded like he was just over the ridge from her. Tavia started walking/climbing up over the ridge towards the noise. Shortly after she started down the far side, she spotted Dag pulling a mud-bat off the boy. So he was their other companion, then. As she watched, he lowered himself stiffly to the ground. He was in worse shape than she was, from all appearances, with what looked to be a twisted ankle.

The child stopped wailing, and Tavia thought they might be in some less danger as a result, but it was only a moment later that he started right back in again. She hissed as quietly as she could to Dag, "Absent gods, can't you shut that child up? It'll have every mud-man for a mile down on us. Up on us. Whatever."

After some barely coherent conversation on her part and his, Dag quieted the boy by opening his ground briefly and planting a persuasion in him. They spoke a bit more, and Dag admitted his ankle was badly hurt. Well, all he said was that it was "not good," but Tavia'd grown up around enough patrollers to know that not-good was a way of avoiding having to say "bad."

She went off to search for a hiding place near water; dark was falling and the moon wasn't up yet -- they weren't going to be traveling down the mountain in the pitch dark with a toddler and a bad ankle, that was for sure. It didn't take too long to find a suitable spot; there were ledges and crannies and cracks in the rocks everywhere. The only hard part was finding one near water -- water flows down away from mountain tops, after all. Once she had a good enough place, she came back to Dag and the boy. It wasn't quite dark yet, so getting them to her hiding spot was doable enough.

They waited there for moonrise. As they did so, Dag gave Tavia his best guess as to how this bat-monster-making malice had come about. A large cavern harboring millions of bats. Millions. No, this was not a Bo tale. Really, actually millions. A malice that started up inside one of those would grow really fast and get way too powerful by eating lots and lots of baby bats. Absent gods. She'd heard Dag say the north was in trouble because of how they were constantly falling behind in patrolling; now she was seeing for herself just what that meant.

To carry the little boy, they rigged up a sling using Dag's torn-up shirt and her vest. Dag insisted on doing the carrying himself in spite of his ankle. He also explained about how he had his bonded knife around his neck. And that she'd have to not hesitate using it if the malice showed up hunting them. He seemed to believe she'd be able to do it. She wasn't near so sure herself, but how could she dare fail? _In living and in dying._

She'd loved the ballad about the two patrollers with bonded knives, but she'd never thought what it would be like to be the one who lived, who'd have the job of taking the broken knife to her partner's wife -- Fawn, in this case. Would Fawn try to be brave about it? She'd thought it'd be wonderfully heroic to sacrifice herself, but she didn't think Dag was thinking any kind of "I can be a hero" thoughts at all, actually. She thought about all his plans for doing medicine making in the north and how he and Fawn were expecting a baby. More likely he was hating the whole idea but figured it was needful. A couple of hours passed in the dark with these equally dark wonderings chasing around in her mind. Finally the moon rose and they started off.

It wasn't long at all before it became clear that Dag wasn't going to be able to both walk and carry the boy. He was barely able to walk at all. When they got to the crest, she offered to take Owlet. Dag didn't exactly agree to this, but at least it looked like he might stop disagreeing soon. But then, after a moment, he said, "Tavia, open and check along the ridge to our right. Maybe half a mile."

As it turned out, there was a hurt patroller from Laurel Gap on the ridge. His name was Pakko Sunfish, he'd gotten dropped by one of those monsters, and he had a broken back. Flocks and flocks of those horrors? This malice was looking worse and worse all the time. At least the Laurel Gap folk were likely being warned. She wondered how long it would take a courier to reach their camp through all these mountains. She fetched some water for him to drink, then helped move him under the overhang of the ledge. Dag decided he should stay with Pakko and watch over little Owlet, while she went off to find Arkady and see what could be done to help.

She started down the mountain in the moonlight, traveling much more easily than she had been. It wasn't an easy stroll, and she'd never been in mountains before this journey, but while they'd been waiting for moonrise, Dag had taught her some about mountain climbing (or unclimbing, in this case) --how to find paths and to look for less steep places and not to try to go too fast -- or else one might find oneself going much too fast. She was careful; she also marked her trail so she could find Dag and Pakko and the tad again later. After some hours of walking, she reached the bottom of the mountain. The river there wasn't too bad; she found a part that wasn't too deep to cross by making a short walk downstream.

It was deep in the night when she arrived at the point where they'd all been attacked -- it was easily recognized by the presence of lots of dead and dying mud-bats. She scouted around some more and soon found their first campsite under the trees. She'd always been tolerably good at fighting. Because of Neeta's training, she'd improved in her ground-veiling from "that's just awful" to "better, but you've got a ways to go." All this time, though, her best skill had always been tracking. Tonight, she was very glad she'd worked so hard at it, even if she'd never before done it ground-closed and at night with only the light of the moon to help her.

She worked out that most of them had headed on foot north and west; they were probably headed for Laurel Gap, which she didn't know how to find. She pictured herself tracking and trying to catch up to a group that was going away over mountains as fast as they could and that was already several hours ahead of her. That didn't look very hopeful. The person she most needed was Arkady; if he was miles and miles away west, he wasn't going to be able to help any time soon at all. But there was another trail with fewer folks also leading away. This group had started off going south and west, and Rase was among them -- she could tell from his staggering and from the pattern in his boot treads. He'd said that it was something they did around New Elm to keep their boots from slipping too much in muddy areas. Sick as he was, there was no way he'd be able to go a long distance or at running speed. She might be able to catch up with him reasonably quickly. Maybe Arkady was there, too? Rase would need someone watching over him, maybe. Also, somebody in that group was using a pack horse. It seemed possible, anyway.

She decided to track the smaller group. Even if Arkady wasn't among them, they'd know more about what had happened and she could decide whether to try to chase down the main group then. She scouted her way, watching for boot prints with Rase's tread pattern. After not too long, she arrived at a small cave. Rase was doing guard duty just inside the entrance; she waited until she reached him to speak. He waved her inside; she opened her ground partway as she entered -- folks said that malices couldn't sense through rock, after all. Both by ground and by sight -- as her eyes adjusted to the greater darkness -- she recognized Arkady seated farther inside and Barr lying down near him; he was asleep and his leg was splinted and bandaged. She stood panting in the entrance for a bit. Rase handed her a mostly-empty water skin; she drank all that remained.

Arkady said, "Tavia! It's good to see you alive! Are you well?" His groundsense was already reaching out to her, but he appeared to decide that none of her injuries were bad enough to need treatment. He then asked, "Two others were carried off, Dag and little Owlet; do you know anything of what happened to them?"

Tavia nodded. She spent a moment gathering her thoughts, then told him how they'd all three survived, and how Dag's ankle was hurt pretty bad. And about Dag's guesses about the malice. And how they'd found Pakko Sunfish up on top of the mountain to the east. And how Dag was watching over him and had sent her looking for Arkady and the others.

Arkady sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Bringing Pakko down is going to need six fit fellows and a board suitable for tying him to. A board could be made, but I don't have six fellows of any fitness just at the moment. I can't see trying to climb that mountain with those mud-bats all around, either. I suppose we'd best wait till morning to see what comes up then. Maybe someone will find us and we can direct them.... I am glad to hear that the Laurel Gap patrol is not too far off, at least; although it sounds like they're in as bad of trouble as we are."

Tavia asked about Barr and the rest of the others. Arkady and Rase explained about how Barr's leg had gotten broken when a mud-bat dropped him and how Sumac had taken command and was leading the rest of them west to Laurel Gap.

Arkady was visibly exhausted. Tavia told him he might as well try to sleep. After all, who knew what the morning would bring? He grimaced, but laid himself in his bedroll.

Tavia and Rase sat together in the entrance to the cave; they talked a bit. He told her a bit more about the mud-bat battle, and she spoke of the hours in the hide-away with Dag. After not too long, Rase asked her what was troubling her. He really was a sweet fellow -- what with all that was going on right now, and with both of them ground-closed, how he could see that something else was bothering her was beyond her guessing.

She said, "I'm just thinking about Dag telling me to kill him with his bonded knife. He was so sure I'd be able to do it if it needed doing. How could he possibly know? I still don't know, myself. I see myself taking hold of the knife, but I sure can't picture...." She shuddered.

Arkady spoke up; he'd not been asleep. "It's a training trick. He doesn't know any more than you do. But when the mentor acts like he's confident, the apprentice believes and is more likely to succeed as a result. Funny thing is, it even works if you know it's a trick -- so long as you trust your mentor enough, you believe. I've even made it work on Dag, though he's thrown me ironic looks some of those times."

"Oh...." Tavia thought for a bit about Dag using a training trick to make sure she'd kill him correctly, then decided she didn't want to think about it ever again. Instead, she and Rase spent the next hour talking quietly about their homes and plans for the future. They also spoke of the difficulties in the north, though they both kept their talk in general terms, avoiding the particulars of what was going on just now.

They rested for a time, then Rase had one of his almost-throwing-up moments. He reached for the water skin, but it was empty. Tavia offered to refill it; she was easily the fittest of everyone here, from the looks of things, though all she pointed out to him was that she'd been the one to finish it off. Rase agreed, so she set off into the night. There was a creek nearby that fed into the river; she went to it to fill the skin.

No sooner had she filled it than arguing voices carried over to her on the night breezes. "I'm sure they went that direction when they left our site." Was that Calla?

Next came Neeta's voice. "We'll never find them like this. We should split up; we can cover more ground that way."

Tavia shook her head. Tracking Rase and the others hadn't been that hard. She walked over to them, waiting to speak until she was close enough to be able to do so quietly. "If you're looking for Arkady and Rase and Barr, they're this way. Don't talk now; wait till we get to the cave so our voices won't travel so much." She pointed the direction to them. Apparently this wasn't a direction any of the three of them were expecting; Tavia mused a bit about how long they would have spent wandering and quarreling if she hadn't come out for water just then.

When they arrived at the cave, Rase stood and stared. Then he shook his head and turned inside. "Arkady? Tavia's brought some of our folk back with her."

Some rustling noises followed, then Arkady showed up, blinking his eyes. "What's this? Neeta? Calla, Indigo? How is it you're all here? What happened? Are Sumac and the others all right?"

Neeta and Calla tried to speak at the same time. Neeta frowned at Calla, who frowned back but closed her mouth and waved at Neeta.

Neeta said, "Sumac sent me to find you. She and Remo are headed west on to Laurel Gap; they weren't hurt last I knew, at least. The malice showed up. It flies. Sumac tried to go after it with Dag's primed knife, but when she ran up behind it, it flew away from her. We Lakewalkers escaped, but the malice slaved the farmers. And sure enough, soon as it did, they turned and attacked us."

Calla frowned at her. "It didn't slave Fawn, Whit, or Berry either, you know." She turned back to Arkady, saying, "I guess Dag's and your shields must've worked! They ran off a different direction than the Lakewalkers did, though. Sumac tried to join them, but the mud-bats chased her off. I don't quite know what happened with me, since it didn't hold my mind like it did the others. It was more like all these wild ideas were fading in and out of my mind."

At this point, they all entered the cave; it was getting to be a tight fit, but there was still room to move around so long as folks were careful. Neeta and the others spoke in more detail about the attack and its aftermath.

A malice that could fly. How could any patroller kill it if it just flew away whenever someone got close? Tavia stared blankly at the cave wall. _In hope or out of it._ She supposed she just had to keep trying even if she didn't know how to succeed.

With so many folks in the cave and only one waterskin, it wasn't more than a few hours after dawn when Tavia went out yet again to fetch a skin of water. On the way back from the creek, she saw a mud-bat crash into a tree some distance off. It flapped wildly, came out of the tree, and flew in a different direction than before. It bounced into another tree and tried to fly off in yet another direction. She'd not seen any bats acting like that before. It was in her groundsense range, so she cautiously opened her ground. It was just a dumb animal -- a dumb, confused, dying animal! She stared. What had happened to it?

Abruptly she realized what she was seeing. "ARKADY!!! We're saved! The malice is dead!" She ran towards the cave; Arkady and the others ran out to meet her.

Arkady asked, "Are you sure? How do you know?"

Tavia pointed to the mud-bat; it wasn't in her range any more, but she knew he could sense farther. He reached out with his groundsense for a short time, then said, "There are maybe half a dozen dead and dying mud-bats within a mile of here, actually -- not just that one. And you're right, none of them are controlled by the malice." He paled slightly and closed in his groundsense to a much shorter range. "Their grounds are even more grotesque than that bear's was."

They practically danced going back into the cave; even Arkady was visibly delighted. Barr groggily asked what was happening, so they went in and explained it all to him. Arkady then declared that he intended to climb up the mountain to find Dag and the injured Laurel Gap patroller as soon as they could manage it. They'd need gear for climbing, and they'd probably need to spend at least the night up on the mountain top. They also weren't going to be able to ride their horses -- wherever they were -- up the mountain, so they'd have to carry their supplies on their backs. Neeta claimed she'd found her horse on the way over and had persuaded it to stay in the area it was at, not too far away from here. She said she could collect it easily enough, so since they still needed folk for carrying Pakko and Dag down, she ought to find the Laurel Gap patrols to the north and bring them back to help out. Arkady agreed to her plan, saying only that she should look for the rest of their party as well, since it seemed the malice had taken them in that direction. She grimaced, but left to collect her horse.

The rest of them spent the next hour packing. Rase claimed he was feeling much better and could watch over Barr. Barr insisted he and Rase would be fine alone as well -- plainly he wanted to be sure Dag was well. Since Arkady'd said he needed some folk with him to carry all the gear and set up a camp on the mountain top, he agreed that Rase and Barr could stay alone. Just before they set out, he collected a handful of oats -- they didn't have much; it was remnants from his pack horse's feed bag -- and started taking ground from them.

Tavia'd never seen him do anything like that before. Puzzled, she asked, "What are you doing?"

"It's a trick of Dag's. Really handy; I plan to make use of it more often in the future. I did some last night as well. If I'm going to be doing complex groundwork on this patroller fellow, I'll need all the strength I can get."

He did look better than he had before, it was true. As noon approached, she led them all back to the river; Arkady insisted on finding a shallower crossing point than she'd used so that a group of six carrying a litter would be able to cross safely. The mountain climb was harder than the journey down had been, but about when they were halfway up the mountain, Arkady smiled widely and stated that he'd just touched grounds with Dag.

They arrived at the mountain top that afternoon and traded stories. Dag was plainly worried about Fawn, but there wasn't much they could say to help -- they didn't know what had happened to her and the other Bluefields. As Tavia and Indigo began setting up camp, Arkady and Dag took on the job of repairing Pakko's back. Calla's job was to tend to Arkady and Dag's patient. By the time Tavia and Indigo finished setting up a shelter and getting a fire started, Dag had broken off from his own groundwork. Arkady was still working on Pakko, though. Tavia watched in fascination. She'd seen the results of some of Arkady's fancier groundwork, but she'd never before watched him doing anything this complicated from so close up.

As soon as Arkady finished, Dag made it known that he planned to go down the mountain to find Fawn. No amount of arguing with him could change his mind, and when he discovered his horse had somehow made it partway up the mountain into his groundsense range, there was no stopping him leaving. Arkady gave his ankle a small reinforcement (Calla was too exhausted to manage one right then, so she couldn't help) and then he was off down the mountain, with Indigo helping him. Tavia shook her head. Maybe Arkady was right about patrollers not having any sense.

At this point, it was all just a matter of waiting. They spent the night up on the mountain, and the following morning as well. Around mid-afternoon a half-patrol of Laurel Gap folk showed up. They had the most astonishing tale of Fawn and Whit and Berry forming a Bluefield farmer patrol and killing the malice by shooting it out of the sky with a sharing-knife-crossbow-bolt. They also passed on the news that Dag had saved Fawn from being buried alive -- Arkady squeezed his eyes shut and swallowed hard at this point -- and that all of their farmer companions were alive and well. They had no news of Sumac or Remo, though. Arkady half-closed his ground and didn't say much for a bit after that, except that he hadn't really thought they'd have news of them, under the circumstances -- he supposed they were probably at Laurel Gap Camp about now.

The board carrier was made, and ropes were ready, so they slid the board under Pakko and tied him to it. The Laurel Gap patrollers took turns carrying him down the mountain and across the river. Arkady located their traveling group back at the wagons; when they arrived, they found that supper was half-done. Food for their group was scrounged up well enough. Tavia decided, having performed two climbs down the mountain and one up it since last night, that she'd had enough moving and went straight to her bedroll as soon as she'd eaten.

She also moved around as little as possible the following day and the morning afterwards. Early that afternoon, though, Dag called the well-enough patrollers to a meeting near the creek. It turned out to be a grim time, when it became apparent that Dag suspected Neeta of trying to kill Fawn by letting her get buried even though she wasn't dead. Worse was when it also became apparent that he was right -- Neeta had known Fawn wasn't dead and had done nothing.

Tavia, revolted, realized that she wasn't going to want to be partners with Neeta ever again. They owed their lives to Fawn and her companions! When Sumac offered her a chance to come north to patrol at Hickory Lake, where Rase was going to be, she decided to take it. She told Sumac that she ought to go south first to make sure a true story got told to the folks at home and to say goodbye, but that she'd come up to Hickory Lake Camp in the fall.

That night, Arkady came by to lend Tavia one of his horses and to provide her with two sets of papers. One was a rough description of the making of Dag's groundshields for Vayve Blackturtle, and the other was a long list of supplies for Tavia to bring back with her when she came north. They were to be delivered to the Clearcreek village along the Grace River, and they included enough horses to ensure that she'd have quite a train behind her on her way north -- he said he might want some of them for brides gifts, maybe.

*******

Tavia and Neeta began their journey south the following morning. The ride home was quiet; the few times during the evening rests that Neeta tried to convince Tavia that her actions had been for the best, Tavia turned her back on her and walked off. When they rode, Tavia never allowed Neeta to even come up alongside her.

They reached camp about mid-afternoon about three weeks later. Tavia wondered what their reception would be. They didn't have Arkady and Dag with them; they'd even lost Remo in the bargain. They were also going to lose her. As for Neeta.... Tavia decided she didn't care what happened to Neeta so long as it never involved her again.

At first, their reception consisted of a great many folk running around and hustling her and Neeta to patroller's headquarters. Tellon Blackturtle, one of their company captains, was in the inner office; other folk arrived soon after -- Challa and Levan and Vayve and Tavia's family and Neeta's family and the summer camp council folk. So did the folk from the winter camp council; they were the ones who had sent her haring after Dag and Arkady in the first place, even if they weren't currently on the council any more. The main person she expected to see but did not was Antan Bullrush. Tavia supposed that this meant that Captain Blackturtle was now their camp captain.

So many folks couldn't fit in the inner office, so they then hustled and bustled and ran around and took her and Neeta to the council grove instead.

All this was very different from the council meetings that had gone on during the two days before they left. That time, Antan had made it known that if they didn't have confidence in his orders, then he didn't want to be their camp captain any longer. The council had been angry enough at Antan's five days of "letting Dag run off with Arkady" that they'd not called him back or anything -- they conveniently ignored the fact that they'd played plenty of role in Dag's eviction and some more in the long delay before Tavia and the others could set out.

Captain Tellon took a good look at Tavia and Neeta facing him. He was a sharp man; he spotted the change in their roles quickly. He turned towards Tavia and asked her to report to him the results of their journey. Tavia supposed that with Neeta looking shame-facedly at the ground, maybe that wasn't such a hard realization to have made after all.

She described the journey north along the Trace, and how they'd finally reached Arkady and Dag about three weeks after they started out, on top of the first mountain pass after Mutton Hash. How it turned out that instead of being one of three Lakewalkers in a middlin'-sized group of farmers, Dag was the leader of a group of twenty folk, some farmers and some Lakewalkers. How Dag hadn't been interested in coming back even for tent rights and having a booth for treating farmers at the market -- just like Remo had said was going to happen if they didn't catch up to him soon enough. How Arkady had fallen heels-up in love with Sumac Redwing, Dag's patrol-leader niece, and the two of them had decided to stay with Dag in the north. How she and Neeta and Remo had decided to travel along at least for a bit.

When she described Dag and Arkady's making of ground shields, Vayve spoke up eagerly. "Dag got them working, then? Do you know what he did? He was having trouble getting them to turn off once they began blocking, as I recall. How did he do it, do you know?"

Tavia answered, "I don't know that much about it, really, but Arkady wrote some notes. He said he hadn't really gotten them together into a proper making-description just yet, but they should be good enough. He also said he'd send something more complete when he finished writing it out. Dag said to tell you he doesn't think his design will work so well for Lakewalker children yet; the shield would likely need to be more flexible to deal with how active their grounds are."

She then took Arkady's notes from her pack and handed them over to Vayve. Vayve started reading greedily, then remembered that she was in a meeting and needed to pay attention to what was going on. She reluctantly lowered the papers down to her side.

Tavia resumed the tale by describing how they'd crossed the next mountain pass going north and reached a dreary valley that had been burned out a few years back. Then came the first malice battle and its lair and how Rase killed it but got blight-sick from being too near the malice. Her description of what a sweet fellow Rase was got cut short by Captain Tellon, who told her to stick to the events.

She then described the battle with the mud-bats and how Lightfoot got killed and she got carried off and how Dag'd dropped his primed knife to Fawn just as he was getting carried off. At this point, Neeta interrupted with, "That was plain madness to drop the knife to her. It was the only knife we had, and he was on his way to the lair. He could've let the mud-bat carry him over to it and then he'd be able to kill it quick. He's too tied up with farmers, that's the problem with him!"

Tavia scowled at her. "He knew just what he was doing. That knife wasn't the only one at all -- he had his bonded knife around his neck. He told me how if the malice came I was to use it to kill him so's I'd have a primed knife to use on the malice." She shuddered in her ground in memory; she sure was glad things hadn't come to that. Quite a few folk stared at her in shock; her mama looked horrified.

She then described the time on the mountain and in Arkady's cave, and how she spoke with Rase while standing guard there during the night. Just as Captain Tellon was about to tell her to get back to her report, she remembered on her own and moved on with the story. She told them about how they discovered the malice was dead and how they'd gone back up the mountain again, and how they'd learned that it was Fawn and Whit and Berry Bluefield who'd killed the bat-malice and just how they'd done the deed.

Just about everyone started speaking up and asking questions at this point. She had to repeat that part of the story twice more before most folk believed her; Challa mostly just had trouble believing that Arkady would be able to climb a mountain on his own. Neeta was asked to confirm these details; she did so sullenly and with as few words as possible -- Tellon had to order her to speak up and not mutter.

Once that part of the tale was done being told, she explained about how Fawn's shield had been made too strong -- there was a bit about that in Arkady's notes. Then Neeta's actions -- or non-actions. Dag's judgment that Neeta was to return south and patrol there, and that she should never come back north. And that she'd be a long time repaying the Luthlians for training her and New Moon Cutoff for raising her. And that he said she might share at the end of her life if she chose. And that Sumac had told Tavia that she could come north to exchange at Hickory Lake, where Rase was going to be staying.

When she stopped speaking, there was silence in the grove. Neeta was staring down at the ground; her kinfolk had their eyes and grounds shut.

Tellon and the members of the council stepped aside to confer a bit. Everyone else stood looking around but not saying anything.

When they returned, Tellon spoke. "First, it's plain that Arkady won't be returning. We'll just have to accept that. We've decided that we don't wish do anything harsh in response -- I'd prefer he thinks of us as a place he might be able to return to someday if he chooses rather than to cut all ties to him and ensure that he won't ever wish to do so. Second, as regards Neeta's actions: We've decided to follow Dag's judgment in the matter. She is to remain a patroller and not be promoted to patrol leader; she is not to exchange north ever again. She is also not to leave camp alone -- she must travel with an escort if she travels at all. As Dag is not a member of this camp, we chose not to levy any fines against her kin. Nevertheless, she has no credit with the camp at this time."

There was further discussion, but after a while they all broke up and Tavia was able to go with her family back to her home tent. Tavia rested until suppertime; afterwards, she found a moment to speak privately with her mama.

"I want to go north to Hickory Lake to exchange, Mama. I told Sumac I'd arrive in the fall."

"I understand, dear. We'll do what we can for you; I believe we have enough credit to replace Lightfoot and your bow, so long as you don't try to get one of the camp's best horses -- I'm sure another one of the geldings will do for you."

Tavia sighed. "I miss Lightfoot." After a pause, she added, "How will we get a primed knife? The northern camps do expect exchange patrollers to bring them."

Her mama said, "I'll ask around a bit. There are some cousins of mine who owe me a few favors and their tent has a primed knife. If that doesn't work, I expect Captain Tellon can provide a donated one for you. We'll manage somehow."

Another pause. Then Tavia asked, "And Mama? I'd also like to bond to a knife -- one from my great-uncle Arlon, please -- we got on really well and all."

Her mama answered just the same way she'd answered last time Tavia had brought this up. "Oh, love! I've told you already -- you're much too young to bond. That's a much more serious business than I think you realize."

"Mama. I _do_ realize. You were right before -- I didn't understand then. But see... Dag's bonded knife made a real important difference in the fight. For all he never took it out of its sheath, even. See, if he hadn't had it, would he have tossed his primed knife to Fawn? I think maybe he wouldn't have -- after all, he's the expert patroller who knows how to get up to malices and kill them, and he was on his way to the lair. He only had a moment to choose, too. With only one knife, likely he'd keep it and try to get it to the malice in its lair. But with two knives, he could give our group two chances. And it was the other chance that worked out. I want the option of making that kind of choice, even though I really, really hope I'll never have to do it. Malices need killing -- whatever it takes. _I am a patroller._ "

Her mama sighed and shook her head. "Yes, I see. I'll take you to Vayve's place tomorrow morning, then."


End file.
